To eat well
Where to eat well in Molise
10 towns
Towns holding at least one place a guide put its name to. The ones several guides agree on come first.
The towns
Agnone
Province: Isernia · 840 m
At 840 meters, town of the pontifical bell foundry and the fire procession that lights its streets every Christmas Eve.
Campobasso
Province: Campobasso · 701 m
Molise's regional capital and the smallest in Italy, 48,000 residents at 701m on a wooded Apennine ridge, with a centro storico that climbs the hillside in stone-paved switchbacks.
Termoli
Province: Campobasso · 15 m
Molise's only port, a walled promontory of fishermen's houses on the Adriatic, with the ferry pier for the Tremiti islands.
Isernia
Province: Isernia · 423 m
A provincial capital on a 423-meter rock spine, with a Paleolithic site about 600,000 years old and a public fountain built from Roman stones.
Larino
Province: Campobasso · 341 m
A Frentani and Roman town of 341 meters in the lower Biferno valley, where a Roman arena and a Gothic cathedral stand a short walk apart.
Capracotta
Province: Isernia · 1,421 m
At 1,421 meters one of the highest communes of the Apennines, where a reported 2.56 meters of snow fell in about 18 hours in March 2015.
Castel del Giudice
Province: Isernia · 800 m
An Alto Molise borgo of 305 residents at 800m that rebuilt an abandoned schoolhouse as a diffuse hotel and recovered 5,000 ancient apple trees into an organic-orchard cooperative.
Fornelli
Province: Isernia · 530 m
A walled medieval borgo at 530 meters with seven towers and the birthplace of Nancy Pelosi's mother, eight kilometers west of Isernia.
Scapoli
Province: Isernia · 668 m
Italy's zampogna bagpipe capital: a 576-resident borgo in the Mainarde at 668m, with a centuries-old tradition of hand-building the zampogna and the Bandiera Arancione plus national park signals.
Venafro
Province: Isernia · 222 m
A 222-meter town near the Lazio border where an emperor founded a colony and Pliny called the local oil the best in the Empire.
From elsewhere in Italy
Five more towns
Menfi
Province: Agrigento
Sicily's triple-signal western coast town: 11,800 residents on a low ridge above 9 km of protected sand at Porto Palo, backed by cellars and olive groves that between them carry Italy's three major small-town quality marks.
Chiavari
Province: Genova
The Tigullio capital between Portofino and the Cinque Terre, a 27,000-person Genoese trading town built around a thirteenth-century grid of porticoed streets.
Balsorano
Province: L'Aquila
A pentagonal fortress above the Liri river that became a backdrop for 1970s Italian horror cinema.
Rosolina
Province: Rovigo
A reclaimed commune where a nine-kilometer beach and a maritime pine forest sit between the Adige mouth and the Adriatic.
Cividale del Friuli
Province: Udine
The Lombard capital on the Natisone, founded as Forum Iulii by Julius Caesar, where an eighth-century chapel still holds six stucco saints.